1. The flash throttles down for Macro shots. Many point-and-shoot cameras do not throttle down well enough to avoid washing out close-up subject matter. In this respect the F10 is quite good.

2. Metal body — feels sturdy!

3. Good color reproduction.

4. Depending on flash use, you can get as much as 500 shots per battery charge.

1. QUALITY CONTROL

2. Soft images in good light, fuzzy images in low light.

3. No image stabilization. This means that a fewer percentage of pictures will be in sharp, detailed focus compared to a camera that offers image stabilization (such as Panasonic, Canon, Sony).

4. Slow AF light in low light.

5. LCD screen is low resolution so that when you review your photos they may look sharp but later on your computer screen they may appear fuzzy. You can't judge the quality of your image capture on the F10, which defeats the digital LCD preview/review advantage over point-and-shoot film cameras.

6. You can't connect directly to a PC or Mac without using the included dongle. The charger also connects using this same dongle.

7. The LCD is hard to see in bright light and there is no optical viewfinder.

There are dozens of glowing Fuji FinePix F10 reviews on the Internet — and a minority of reviews that sound a lot like mine. Don’t get me wrong: I really wish I could rave. Unfortunately, after not one but THREE F10s, I have no confidence in Fuji's quality control. Whereas the U.S. model is made in China, the F11 European model is made in Fujifilm's home country of Japan. Not that China is a bad place to manufacture — in fact they are quite experienced in all manner of manufacturing — but I do wonder why there appears to be manufacturing going on in Japan AND China.

So what happened?

Allow me to explain.

The first F10 took blurry photos. Contrary to popular belief — that higher ISO settings compensate for lack of image stabilization — the F10 does not maintain a fast enough shutter speed to allow handheld shots under conditions as ordinary as indoor household lighting. Using a tripod, however, did not improve the situation much. And when I tried to shoot pictures of my aquarium and couldn't get a single one in focus — compared to my six-year-old Panasonic that did a fine job shooting the same subject — I realized that something was wrong. Reading the user manual and changing the settings did not improve upon the first F10's performance but a second F10 improved upon my experience with respect to the autofocus system. Unfortunately, the second F10 presented a new problem. Light metering was all over the map. If I repeatedly pointed the camera at the same patch of concrete the readings differed considerably with each half press of the shutter. In normal shooting, pictures tended to overexpose, which brought out the purple fringing (chromatic aberration) that most of the professional reviewers gloss over (trust me, CA is worse than average on the F10). The third F10 I obtained works much better in terms of focus and exposure, yet pictures are still relatively soft, especially those shot in "Natural Light" mode (a setting without flash, which boosts ISOs).

About the only thing you can control on the F10 is the ISO, white balance and metering setting. The rest — including contrast, color saturation and noise reduction — is up to the camera. Though noise is well controlled, picture detail suffers as a result. High ISOs not withstanding, the F10 needs good light to bring out detail; however, too much light brings out higher than average highlight clipping. Personally, I'd rather work with an image that is slightly underexposed because I can lighten it up in Photoshop. But I can't bring back detail that overexposure has eliminated. Sure, I could resort to EV compensation, but it seems a bit excessive to have to jerryrig an image on a point-and-shoot camera. A camera of this type SHOULD do a competent job in full auto.

Contrary to those who claim parity with their dSLR, the F10’s image quality is only average. By contrast, I obtained sharper pictures and better exposure from the Panasonic LZ2, Panasonic FZ7 and Olympus SP-350, which I also tested.

I also found the F10's speed overrated. The Panasonic LZ2 is much faster and the LZ2's autofocus brackets are much larger so you have a greater percentage of your subject framed in the "target zone". By contrast, the F10's bracket area is small and focus falls off rather quickly, especially if your subject is off center. Under low light, the situation gets worse. The F10, like all point-and-shoot cameras, uses a "Contrast Detection" method of autofocus. The lower the light the lower the contrast tends to become, which means that focusing times extend and cameras of this type tend to "hunt" for a target — sometimes locking on to subject matter that is unintended. Now to be fair, this is a common problem because Contrast Detection is a common focusing system on point-and-shoot cameras. But the F10 is not exactly a star performer among those cameras that rely on this imperfect system. Even with the AF assist lamp enabled, the F10 hunts, particularly in Macro mode. It can take as many as 3-4 seconds to focus, even during the daytime with indoor lights on and blinds open. Worse, the AF assist lamp is blinding. It shoots out green rays that can stretch across a moderate size room. Now if you think people don't like flash, just wait until you blind them with this beam as it takes its sweet time.

For the life of me, I can't believe these folks who say that the F10’s picture quality is good enough for stock photography and similar professional uses. I recently purchased a dSLR and can report with confidence that the F10 isn't on par by a long shot. Think about it: How could such a small lens compete with a dSLR lens, even if all other factors are equal? Secondly, I have to wonder if the people reviewing this camera have actually owned it for more than one week. Too often I see reviews — and this goes for all cameras — that are written in as little as one day! You can't possibly shoot under all possible conditions and scenarios, such as birthday parties, outdoors, sports, etc. in just one day!

Now it could well be that despite two exchanges, I still ended up with an F10 that didn't come off the assembly line in factory spec condition. This might explain why my experience is so much different than most. On the other hand, if Fuji can't make a consistently good camera, do you want to trust them with your hard-earned cash?

Sorry to sound negative. I tried. I tried THREE times to obtain the impression the other raving reviewers claim.

If image quality is the final judge, the F10 sure isn't it. Now the newly released F30, with more manual controls, higher ISOs and the hope of less CA, might be an improvement. Then, again, without true image stabilization you can expect that fewer pictures will be keepers compared to cameras that offer genuine stabilization.

Customer Service

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Similar Products Used:

Olympus FE-140
Olympus SP-350
Panasonic LZ2

Best in class for lack of shutter lag and focus speed. Sets the class for low light high ISO performance. Battery life is awesome, 300+ shoots easy. Picture quality. For a small point and shoot it will still be a good camera after a few years.

2.8 - 5.0 aperature. Fuji would have hit one out of the park if the F10 had a 2.0 - 2.8 aperature. With a faster lens, this camera would totally rock. on the long end, what you gain by having a usable 800iso you loose with a 5.0 aperature. No viewfinder. in this size camera not a huge issue for me. Some might not like the LCD in bright sunlight. I have been able to manage. XD memory!!! WHY not use SD??? More manuel control, or even Full manuel control. Buttons easy to hit when shooting with one hand, too easy to turn on flash by accident.

I got this camera as a pocket/travel camera as my regular Canon 20d is too big to carry all the time. I've been waiting for a pocket camera that has good low light performance and good speed but still pocket size. This camera delivers! It's fast focusing, quick to action, and shutter lag are amont the best in it's class. The low noise at higher ISO speeds set it apart from the rest of the pocket cameras. As stated before 400 is very usable, and 800 or 1600 are there if you need them. The functions are easy enough to scroll thru but they are also easy to inadvertentely hit when shooting one handed. more manuel functions would be great but you do have some control using the iso and +/- exposure controls. I've heard the newer Fuji F11 is the same package with some new features including Aperature and shutter priority settings. The quality of the photos isn't quite up to 20D standards. It could use a sharper lens, but it is among the best in it's class of point and shoot pocket cameras. I'm still waiting for a Pocket sized camera with a useable 1600 iso, 3x to 4x zoom, 2.0 - 2.8 max aperature. Aperature and Shutter priority, and full manuel exposure, and manuel focus. The F10 comes closer then anything else (other then the F11) Bottom Line from me ? I'm happy with my F10

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Too many to list! Canons, Nikons, Sonys, and Kodaks. All had noisey ISO above 100 - 200.

Fast shooting, well built

Still has P&S noise, poor optics, no true viewfinder

This little camera may be the fastest on the market for a P&S. It has the least shutter lag and is quite fast overall. It's well designed and handles well. Unlike many other P&S types, the F10 sports an ISO range that is usable up to 400 or so. Beyond that noise becomes a bit too much to deal with. This is a subjective observation and opinions differ, but I feel it's unusable after 400, though that's still better than other units. The camera does have some flaws, deal killers to some: 1) It has virtually no manual controls. The ISO range would pay off more if you could work with the settings, but you can't. This is not a camera you can grow with. 2) The optics on the F10 are really not that good. They are somewhat soft compared to my Canon A95 and suffer from a great deal of CA. In fact it's the worst CA I've seen on a camera in this class. It's always good to remember that tiny lenses will generally not measure up and this is very much the case with the F10. Please download full size samples at Pbase.com and judge for yourself. 3) No viewfinder. For those who have more than a party mentality about taking pictures, the lack of an optical viewfinder is not a good trade off for a bigger LCD. This is not a good camera for someone who wants to learn or employ proper composition. 4) No remote. Cameras at this price point should have a remote. I think Fuji is on the right track with the F10. I also tried the E550 which was very good, if somewhat clunky. This camera's main appeal is the speed, rather than ultimate picture quality which is simply better on several other models in the same class. I won't be reccomending this camera, but I have a feeling the next generation will be worth a hard look.

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Similar Products Used:

Olympus, Canon G2, Sony U30, Minolta Z1, Pentax Optio S5i, Nikon 7900, Nikon 8800, Canon A95